Chapter 72: Yellow Springs Cold Core

A bold conjecture suddenly formed in Wang Lin's mind: one day, many people were sitting at a dinner table when disaster suddenly struck. Without them noticing, the entire city became a silent ruin.

At this moment, faint traces of cold Qi gradually emanated from within the ruins. This Qi grew heavier and heavier, eventually almost solidifying into substance.

“Looking at the scale of these ruins, the population was probably no less than ten million. A place where ten million people died should be the best Yellow-type extreme yin land among the Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow four lands, right?”

Situ Nan had explained the extreme yin lands in detail to Wang Lin during his seclusion.

The Yellow Yin land is the simplest; any place where a large number of living beings have died is a Yellow Yin land. The more deaths, the better the Yellow Yin land.

Profound Yin lands are somewhat difficult and mostly appear in extremely cold places.

Earth Yin is even harder to find, requiring a great Opportunity to encounter, as Earth Yin refers to the Qi emanating from deep abysses underground.

As for Heaven Yin, it is essentially impossible to appear, because for a Heaven Yin land to form, all three—Earth, Profound, and Yellow—must be present simultaneously. This creates a wondrous transformation, turning it into a Heaven Yin land.

The higher the quality of the extreme yin land, the greater the benefit to the Cultivator.

Wang Lin immediately formed Hand Seals with his right hand, muttering incantations. Suddenly, faint red light points condensed before him, eventually forming a red sphere of light.

This is a Spell specifically used to test the quality of extreme yin lands. Based on the color of the light sphere, there are four types of light: purple, blue, silver, and red, each corresponding to the four great extreme yin lands of Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow.

In addition, Situ Nan had also mentioned that even different extreme yin lands are divided by quality. Each type of extreme yin land is categorized into four levels: Ordinary, Excellent, Deep Yin, and Absolute Yin.

Each level is further divided into ten grades.

Generally speaking, reaching Ordinary Grade three or above is sufficient for Cultivating the Yellow Springs Ascending Aperture Art, and reaching Ordinary Grade eight or above can accelerate the Cultivation speed.

After the light sphere appeared, it immediately emitted a strong red light. The red light grew brighter and brighter, eventually flashing five times consecutively.

Wang Lin stroked his chin, his eyes flickering. He knew that five flashes indicated that the quality of this Yellow Yin land was Ordinary Grade five.

After a brief deliberation, he controlled the light sphere without another word and walked into the ruins. The surrounding cold Qi grew denser as Wang Lin advanced. Eventually, he even felt like he was walking in water; the Qi was so heavy that he felt suffocated after only walking a few hundred zhang.

At this point, the light sphere also grew brighter as Wang Lin moved, reaching Ordinary Grade eight.

Wang Lin did not stop and continued forward. After another few hundred zhang, he reached the ruins where the Stone Bead was located. He could no longer advance; threads of cold Qi penetrated his body, his blood vessels began to ache, and his spiritual power showed signs of becoming uncontrollable.

At this moment, the red sphere split into two with a bang, and simultaneously flashed once. Wang Lin's eyes gleamed; he knew this indicated that the quality of this place had reached Excellent Grade one.

Based on his search of the ruins during the day, Wang Lin knew that these ruins were vast, and his current position was probably less than one ten-thousandth of the total.

Moreover, the deeper he went, the denser the cold Qi became.

“This is definitely the best Cultivation spot!” Wang Lin slowly retreated and stopped at the previous Ordinary Grade five location.

This location was where Wang Lin, after analyzing, deemed most suitable for his body. The Yellow Springs Ascending Aperture Art’s requirement for extreme yin lands needed to be gradual; this was a key point Situ Nan had repeatedly emphasized before falling into slumber.

Wang Lin pondered for a moment, then sat cross-legged, closed his eyes in meditation, his mind replaying Situ Nan’s detailed explanation of the Yellow Springs Ascending Aperture Art.

This Yellow Springs Ascending Aperture Art is divided into nine layers. After Cultivating every three layers, one can condense a Cold Core within the body. Once all nine layers are completed, the three Cold Cores fuse together, offering a certain chance to directly ascend to the Core Formation Stage.

This was the biggest reason Wang Lin decided to Cultivate the Yellow Springs Ascending Aperture Art, and it was also the most suitable and relatively fast Cultivation Technique known to Situ Nan for Wang Lin at present.

Of course, there were faster ones, such as the Core Seizing Great Art, but capturing a Core Formation Stage expert alive was, for Wang Lin currently, tantamount to suicide.

The Cold Core of the Yellow Springs Ascending Aperture Art is formed by 'rushing the apertures'. Rushing the apertures is a necessary process for Cultivating this Cultivation Technique. The Yellow Springs Ascending Aperture Art has three major apertures: the Dantian, the Qi Sea, and the Ancestral Aperture.

At the moment these three apertures are broken through, a Cold Core will condense. Once the Cold Core appears, the spiritual power within the body will immediately transform into Yin Cold Power.

As for the success rate of rushing the apertures, it is greatly related to the quality of the extreme yin land.

Time quickly passed. When he opened his eyes again, the sky was gradually brightening, and the surrounding cold Qi rapidly dispersed. The moment the sun rose, all traces of cold Qi vanished.

Wang Lin stood up. Since he had decided to Cultivate here, he needed to create a dwelling. He looked around and finally set his target on a collapsed house not far from this spot.

With a wave of his right hand, the collapsed debris, rubble, and other objects all floated up and scattered around, clearing a small open space.

After completing everything, Wang Lin sat quietly cross-legged in the open space. He took out a stitched book from his Storage Pouch, composed himself, and carefully flipped through it.

This book was precisely the 'Formation Array Explanations' he had exchanged for Mid-Grade Spirit Stones in Teng Family City two years ago.

At that time, he had merely glanced at it, discovering that it meticulously described several Formation arrays, complete with diagrams, and very comprehensive explanations of various operations and setups.

After memorizing all the contents, Wang Lin closed his eyes in contemplation, his hands occasionally waving as if drawing something without Divine Sense.

A day passed quickly. At dusk, Wang Lin sighed, opened his eyes, and murmured to himself, “This Formation array is profound and extensive. Even these very simple small Formation arrays described in this booklet took me a whole day to barely grasp one or two. Especially some of the derivation techniques within, which rely on calculation power, become increasingly difficult further on.”

Helpless, he stopped pondering and researching, and instead completely followed some of the Formation diagrams within, while simultaneously exploring and using the Gravity Spell to pick up stones, placing them outside the room as required.

Like drawing a Gourd by tracing its outline, he finally set up a Formation array called the Small Maze Formation.

This Formation array was truly too crude, too simple, lacking even the most basic array flags. Looking at the scattered stones outside the room, Wang Lin gave a bitter smile. He carefully compared it with the Formation diagram, made a few adjustments, and finally got it exactly as required by the diagram.

Wang Lin took a deep breath, formed Hand Seals as required, and swiftly pointed. Instantly, a silent mist appeared, enveloping the surroundings.

Wang Lin looked at the mist and smiled bitterly, thinking that this Formation array was more than enough to trap some Mortals, but for cultivators, it was utterly useless and couldn't serve its purpose as a Protector.

After a brief contemplation, Wang Lin murmured to himself, “If one Formation array isn't enough, I’ll set up two. If that still doesn't work, I’ll arrange all the Formation diagrams in the booklet as required. That way, it should at least have some effect, right?”

Thinking this, Wang Lin used the Gravity Spell again, controlling the surrounding stones. After setting up several more Formation diagrams consecutively, night fell once more.

Wang Lin sat cross-legged on the open ground. The moment the cold Qi rose, he suddenly placed his hands on his knees, concentrating his mind to breathe. His breathing method was a long-short-five pattern. The 'long one' meant a long inhalation time, while the 'short five' meant the exhalation time was only one-fifth of the inhalation. He used the fastest speed to absorb the surrounding cold Qi into his body.

Strictly speaking, this was his first external breathing exercise after Foundation Establishment. For the past two years, he had been absorbing liquid Spiritual Qi underground, merely digesting it internally.

This cold Qi was actually similar to Spiritual Qi. Wang Lin had been breathing Spiritual Qi for many years, so doing this naturally felt familiar. However, he immediately noticed a difference. In the past, when breathing Spiritual Qi, there seemed to be a thin membrane outside his body, obstructing the intake. Not only was the speed of Spiritual Qi entering his body slow, but after entering, he could only absorb a portion, with most of it dissipating during the breathing process.

But now it was different; that membrane seemed to have vanished. The cold Qi surged in like a tidal wave the moment he began to breathe. Moreover, it was as if he had a different body; he actually absorbed more than half of the cold Qi that poured into him, completely unlike before.

Wang Lin pondered this situation briefly and came up with three possible answers: first, cold Qi and Spiritual Qi are different and more suitable for his breathing; second, breathing naturally becomes much faster after the Foundation Establishment Stage than during the Qi Condensation Stage; third, after absorbing a portion of Teng Li’s Spiritual Root, his innate talent had improved significantly.

As for which answer was correct, Wang Lin did not delve deeper but immersed himself in breathing.

Initially, Wang Lin was very unaccustomed to it, because the cold Qi was icy. Upon entering his body, it immediately dispersed and permeated his entire body, his five viscera and six organs. The coldness emanating from within made his body tremble uncontrollably. This sensation was completely opposite to absorbing Spiritual Qi into the body; one brought a warm, comfortable feeling, while the other was like being frozen in an ice cellar.

As more and more cold Qi was absorbed, Wang Lin's hands and feet grew icy cold, the blood flow in his body gradually became viscous, and eventually even his heartbeat slowed down.

His eyebrows, hair, and all body hairs slowly became frosted, and a wave of cold Qi thoroughly permeated from within his body, perfectly fusing with the surroundings.

Time flew by. The moment the sun rose, the cold dissipated. Wang Lin's eyelids trembled, and he opened his eyes. He exhaled a deep breath of white mist. After a night of breathing, a tiny, indistinct Qi mass appeared in his abdomen. This Qi mass rotated silently and slowly, gradually emitting threads of cold Qi.

The spiritual power within his body showed no repulsion towards this Qi mass; they coexisted without interfering with each other.